Sandy Salt - Crusty Sub Guy that has spent way too much time in the desert. And yes my middle name is Angry!

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

The "Gay Marriage" Thing

Here is the deal about this one. I feel that the religious types are getting this all wrong because they think the government should be in charge of who should and should not be married and claim the bible as their reference. I totally agree that the bible clearly states that marriage is between one man and one woman for the purposes of procreation. I know that the religious types are now applauding, but wait one minute. Since when does the government have the right to regulate this issue based on the bible and not the rule of law?

It was all fine and dandy when the government was doing the bidding of the religious ones, but the reality is that the government should never have been in the marriage business to begin with since it had no legal basis to do so. The government should never have been allowed to issue marriage licenses to anyone. The state should have recognized the joining of two people with a legal document of domestic partnership (currently incorrectly named marriage license). The church should marry people any way that they see fit and recognition by the state would be via a legal document that has nothing to do with "marriage". You want to hold the line on who can be married, then as a church you decide whom can be married and the hoops that they will have to jump through. The state should not legally recognize that ceremony and should only recognize the domestic partnership.

If you want to define marriage, have at it, you can do it in your church or your denominational convention, but that remains 100% a church matter. Now, if you want the states to define marriage then you open the door to fun things like Shia Law and state religion. Our Founding Fathers tried to keep the state out of church business and that God gave us things that the government should never be able to take away, but if we allow the government in then all bets are off. You want to solve this "gay marriage" issue, then get the government out of the marriage business.

If you agree or not let me hear it. I am not afraid because this is a country of laws that protect all citizens, but allows me to believe any crazy thing that I like. I and like minded people have the right to practice our religion free from interference of the government, but we can't expect nor would we want the government to enforce our beliefs on the country as a whole. So, I say believe what you want and don't invite the government in where it does not belong. Otherwise you are on a very slippery slope where any religion can claim any crazy idea and force it down your throat (I did say Shia Law, right).